[jsewell]

I have had my share of back pain and ESI's and most recently a severe bout of sciatica. so severe i was confined to a wheelchair for mobility.

For the ESI's before i had any lumbar surgery , i always had my ortho spine surgeon perform these. He did several levels at one time so i never had any decisions regarding this to make. They were always for back pain and sometimes did not work at all and one time worked for almost a year.
On August 2nd i had lumbar surgery including a fusion of L4-5 (the rest above are fused) and woke up with the severe sciatica pain. I could not even put my toes down on one leg or straighten my leg and was in constant pain . I waited at home, in bed most of the time, until my surgery last Monday (Sept 10th). In between i had epidurals for the sciatica which only improved it about 5%.
Fortunately for me the problem was fixed at this weeks surgery and the sciatica pain is gone. I can walk again. All is good.

I would inquire if a spine surgeon could do all 3 levels or 2 in question at the same time or maybe a week apart to see which is really the problem. I also had a discogram for the thoracic region and it did clearly show which disk was the problem. But not a pleasant procedure.

judy